


Family Pride

by FleetSparrow



Series: Story a Day in May 2019 [23]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-23
Updated: 2019-05-23
Packaged: 2020-03-13 07:34:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18936322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FleetSparrow/pseuds/FleetSparrow
Summary: Sometimes she comes to the gallery just to see her great-grandmother.





	Family Pride

**Author's Note:**

> Day 23 of SADIM. Prompt: Picture.
> 
> We were given the painting A Pastoral Visit by Richard Norris Brooke and told to write something about it. So I gave my characters a relative in the model Georgianna Weeks.

Dr. Egypt Weeks stared up at the painting in the National Gallery of Art, looking into the face of a woman she had never known, wondering if she would be proud of her great-granddaughter now. Divorced and raising her teenage daughter alone, with a blossoming medical practice, Egypt often found herself conflicted in her current role. The only Black female doctor in her hospital, she was used to being the standard for her whole being, representing not only her culture, but all those before and after her. It was exhausting and she sometimes wondered whether it was worth it or not.

She glanced away from the portrait to catch a glimpse of her daughter on her phone.

“Tanesha. Pay attention!”

Tanesha rolled her eyes, then smiled up at her mother. “Yes, mama?”

“Put that away and look at the painting,” Egypt said. “That’s your great-great-grandmother up there.”

“I know. I was looking up more information about the painting,” Tanesha said. Still, she tucked her phone into her pocket and stared at the painting. “She looks strong.”

“She had to be, back in those days. She did hard labor, too, running the family.”

Tanesha fell silent for a while. She seemed to be taking in every detail of the painting, from the clothes they wore, to the poster half-hidden on the back wall, to the kitten with its bowl and bone. Her hand found her mother’s.

“You’re strong too, mama.”

Egypt looked over at her. Tanesha smiled at her and squeezed her hand. Egypt felt tears well up in the corners of her eyes. She pulled her daughter into a hug.

“Thank you, baby.”

She looked back at the painting and just for a moment, it looked like the painting was smiling, too.


End file.
